Dir.
Michael Winterbottom
Set in the 19th century American
frontier, The Claim is set in a
small pioneer town when members of a railway company, including Wes Bentley, enter to negotiate the
building of a railway. Interacting with the townsfolk including the head Daniel
Dillon (Peter Mullan), conflict
slowly starts to take place alongside various domestic issues, Dillon's past
coming to haunt him when the chance to rekindle his love for the wife he sold (Nastassja Kinski) becomes possible but
with the baggage of memories. The promise of the film is the possibility of all
the actors within it being onscreen - Mullan,
Kinski, even Milla Jovovich in a drastically different type of role - plus the
fact that its setting is one of a community of different nationalists (Chinese,
Irish, Scandinavian etc) suggesting the potential for a really complex film on
the nature of these pioneer towns in the New American. The Claim however is just dull. Its everything I hate about modern
cinema even if this is now a decade old or more.
The
problem for me with it became immediate when it tries to depict a
"reality" of what the west at the time was like - worn faces, Jovovich with little makeup on, dirt,
cramped environments, cussing and sex - but undermines it completely with a
glossy film style that presumes to be realistic but chops its plans down by the
knees, made worse because so many films repeat this style to death exactly. Soft
lighting. Pointless amounts of editing for a single conversation. Orchestral
string score that sounds like so many others. Its drama that is supposed to be serious and
sober, but without any sense of real meaning and depth to it. It could have
been about the industrialisation of the frontier, the tensions between the
immigrants, and what would have to be sacrificed, conflict between a senior and
a young upstart, love and death. But its hollow. It takes thirty minutes or so
to establish a beginning to its main ideas, and it cannot decide if it's a
character piece or a drama. There's nothing vaguely entertaining let alone intriguing
about The Claim, continuing the
problem with many realistic historical films in that they feel like cinematic
taxidermy onscreen. It's so deathly serious without any real moment that grabs your
attention; the closest is when a whole house is moved over a mountain, which
should have been longer a scene, could have been a whole feature film by itself
and likely more interesting. It's worse when great actors like Peter Mullan are trying their hardest in
something that strives for pretence but is not touching anything actually
interesting. By its end its supposed to become incredibly emotional, but its
signposting of this through its obvious musical cues and pauses for dramatic
effect feel contrived and overused. Classic, more fictional westerns from the
fifties or so are far more interesting in how they try to tackle serious issues
like race, gender or family relations, their lack of pretence and their glamour
allow them to pull you into them with characters who stand out greater. Their
clear, quick narratives, and short lengths, allow them to emphasis the issues
clearly through the briefness of the material. The Claim never allows its narrative to stand out because it goes
for bad drama and tedious structure choices, far too long at two hours and
confusing sluggishness for being profound. The unfortunate thing is that there
are many films in this art film area of cinema that are just as bad for this
reason, my heckles slowly growing to the point they are a nuisance and my hopes
drop if a movie strays into these habits just in their beginning. It feels like
it misses the complete point of its existence when something like Flaming Star (1960) with Elvis Presley manages to be far more
interesting in its themes alongside its Don
Siegel-directed western content. Its attention seeking through a form of
laziness, not willing to entertain like those classic films, not willing to
truly push to grab the human heart of the viewer, and it seethes that it's not
just a film like The Claim that
suffers from this, but so many other works in cinema including ones celebrated
for this problem that justifiably chastised for it. |
| From http://www.cinemotions.com/data/films/0004/30/2/photo-Redemption-The-Claim-2000-4.jpg |
No comments:
Post a Comment